August, 1910."| 



143 



Agricultural Education. 



the State Board of Agriculture, one-third 

 by the State Department of Education, 

 and the remainder by the State univer- 

 sity. He is expected to work under the 

 co-ordinate direction of these three 

 authorities in bringing agricultural in- 

 struction into secondary and elementary 

 schools of the State. 



As a means of encouraging the estab- 

 lishment of agricultural courses in high 

 schools, a system of recognition of cer- 

 tain high schools for State aid has also 

 been established. Eacb of these schools 

 receives $500 annually from the Soate 

 treasury on condition of meeting certain 

 specified requirements concerning labor- 

 atory equipment, the course of study, 

 and the selection of a competent man to 

 give the instruction in agriculture. 

 Twenty-five schools have already applied 

 fo»" such recognition, and probably at 

 least twelve, properly distributed over 

 the State, will ultimately receive it. 

 Last year the State Superintendent held 

 a number of summer normal courses for 

 the benefit of new teachers of agricul- 

 ture, and at least five such courses will 

 be given this year. 



A chair of rural education has also 

 been established in the University of 

 Missouri, with Prof. R. H. Emberson in 

 charge. Prof. Emberson's time will be 

 given entirely to the rural school pro- 

 blem, and his business will be to bring 

 the college of agriculture and the rural 

 school into close touch and sympathy, to 

 introduce agriculture into the curri- 

 culum, to assist teachers in making this 

 work successful, and to interest the boys 

 of the school in corn growing, corn 

 judging, live-stock judging, and such 

 other subjects as may be found feasible. 

 His work will all be in the field. 



Within a few weeks Minnesota has 

 adopted a definite policy for the encour- 

 agement of vocational teaching in its 

 public schools. A bill passed by the 

 legislature appropriates 125,000 a year 

 for the next two years to encourage the 

 establishment of agricultural depart- 

 ments in State high schools and graded 

 or consolidated rural schools. These 

 agricultural departments must be pro- 

 vided with trained teachers of agricul- 

 ture, manual training, and domestic 

 science, and with not less than five acres 

 of land for educational and experiment- 

 al purposes. Schools which have met 

 these requirements (not to exceed one 

 in a county nor ten in the State in any 

 one year), and have been designated 

 by the State High School Board to re- 

 ceive State aid, will get an amount 

 equal to two-thirds of their actual ex- 

 penditures upon departments of agri- 



culture, provided that State aid shall 

 not exceed $2,500 a year for any one 

 school. 



Still another example tending in the 

 same general direction is furnished by 

 the State of Texas, whose legislature 

 has voted $32,000 to subsidize agricul- 

 tural instruction in the public high 

 schools, besides providing $5,000 for each 

 of the three State normal schools with 

 which tc maintain courses in agriculture 

 and manual training. In addition to 

 this, agricultural instruction is also to 

 be eriven in six summer normal courses 

 for public school teachers, three of the 

 courses being assigned to the three 

 normal schools, one to the State univer- 

 sity, one to the State College of Agri- 

 culture and the Mechanic Arts, and one 

 to the College of Industrial Arts (for 

 women) at Denton. 



One other case is noteworthy in this 

 connection, that of the establishment 

 this year of Arkansas ' first State normal 

 school with a distinct department of 

 agricultural instruction, supervised by 

 an agricultural college graduate, Prof. 

 L. A. Niven. And in anticipation of 

 the competent teaching service which 

 this department is to develop in its 

 graduates, the legislature has also 

 appropriated $160,000 for establishing at 

 least four agricultural high schools in 

 the State. 



These new developments furnish addi- 

 tional evidence of a vigorous movement 

 throughout the whole country for bring- 

 ing agricultural teaching into all normal 

 schools, as a means of spreading its 

 introduction through their graduates 

 into the common schools of the people. 

 The following States, named in the 

 chronological order of their actiou, have 

 already crystallized this general ten- 

 dency by appointing professors or 

 assistant professors of agricultural edu- 

 cation either in the State university or 

 the State college : Illinois, Tennessee, 

 Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Michigan, 

 Indiana, and Louisiana. Mississippi has 

 a professor of industrial pedagogy, 

 supervising work in agriculture and 

 mechanic arts, and several other States 

 (as Iowa) have developed extension 

 departments that aim to bring agri- 

 cultural instruction into all the secon- 

 dary schools as rapidly as practicable. 



So it has come to pass that no single 

 State can hope to gain or maintain a 

 position of distinct precedence in agri- 

 cultural education extension work ; 

 rather each must needs take heed lest it 

 find itself already superceded in rank 

 by one it had supposed to be far in the 

 rear of the movement. And none are 



